Via The Daily What, here’s an incredible interpretation of the District of Columbia’s same-sex marriage laws: Mark Reed and Dante Walkup, of Dallas, Texas, recently got married in a Dallas hotel reception room while an authorized officiant from the District presided over the ceremony…via Skype.

More details, courtesy of the Dallas Voice:

Their “Skype” wedding was officiated via teleconference from Washington, D.C., where same-sex marriage is legal, and they received their license in the mail a short time later.

It’s called “e-marriage,” and it’s a sort of high-tech version of the proxy wedding traditionally held when one of the parties can’t be physically present — because, for example, they’re in the military stationed overseas.

[…]

Although Reed and Walkup were able to hold their ceremony in Dallas, they had to go to D.C. beforehand to register. And Reed said while D.C.’s marriage law has no provision against e-marriage, the validity of the procedure could theoretically be challenged in court.

That’s why the couple is now working with legal experts and legislators from states where same-sex marriage is legal to draft statutes that would solidify the practice. Reed and Walkup traveled this week to Michigan for a symposium on e-marriage.

While the couple has no intention of using their case to challenge Texas’ bans on same-sex marriage, Reed said they want to make it more convenient and less expensive for same-sex couples to legally wed.

Same-sex couples traveling to other jurisdictions in order to get hitched is nothing new, of course. But I have to admit that this is the first time I’ve heard of a couple registering to wed in D.C., then performing the ceremony in a jurisdiction that doesn’t recognize or perform such unions. (Nevermind the somewhat incredibly fact that D.C. officials are apparently allowed to officiate over unions via VoIP!) Aside from being downright awesome, this story proves that same-sex marriage is still one incredibly jumbled realm of the legal universe.